College Park High School Athlete Dies Following Football Injury

High school athletics professional and school officials are investigating the death of high school football player, Deantre Turman who collapsed following a tackle which caused trauma to his spinal cord. The suburban Atlanta high school football player died from injuries suffered during a scrimmage game, according to medical examiners in Fulton County last week.

Turman died after he made a tackle during a pre-season game, said Mike Alsip, a forensic investigator for the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office. The teenager broke his neck, Alsip said.

The accident happened at a school in College Park.

Turman’s coach, Glenn Ford, said that Turman — a cornerback known to friends as “Tre Tre” — went immediately limp and unresponsive after the play.

Coaches and others tried without success to revive him during what Ford said was a 15-minute wait for an ambulance.

The young athlete was pronounced dead at a hospital about an hour and 15 minutes after the accident, according to Alsip.

Tarsha Keller, the woman who raised Turman since his mother died when he was just 4 years old, told WSB that the teen died doing what he loved. “Being the competitor and playing different sports made him happy,” Keller said.

Deaths from high school football are exceedingly rare.

Over the last 10 years, an average of less than three boys per year have died from on-field injuries playing high school football, according to the National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research at the University of North Carolina.

CNN’s Michael Pearson contributed to this report.

(Photo: DeAntre Turman, left, died after breaking his neck during play.)